New Delhi, March 14: MPs may have won the battle to be included in the selection panel for schemes from Integrated Action Plan (IAP) funds for Left Wing Extremist (LWE) hit districts, but the war on how these will be spent is brewing between them and the police.
The IAP was started last year with a grant of 25 crore per district per year. This will increase to Rs. 30 crore for the next financial year. Funds have started pouring in by this year.
Chatra’s independent MP Inder Singh Namdhari threw down the gauntlet when he wrote the home minister last month about MPs being excluded from selection panels.
Currently selection panels include the district’s collector or magistrate, superintendent of police and forest officer. In some districts, even officers in charge of police stations, block development officers and sub divisional officers, of the areas in which the schemes are implemented, are included.
In his terse letter Namdhari cited the landmine blast on SP Anoop T. Mathew’s convoy on May 28 last year in Palmau district, in which a cop died and two of his colleagues were injured. He blamed it on the dilapidated road at Palamu’s Chak village where the attack happened.
He wrote, “… even after release of LWE fund, this road has not been incorporated by the concerned deputy commissioners of Palamu & [sic] Chatra. It is also unfortunate that the directive sent by the home ministry has eliminated the names of MPs from the selection panel of schemes… I feel frustrated because I am not in a position to face the public of the area which has elected me.”
His views are echoed by Jehanabad’s JD(U) MP Jagdish Sharma. “Local MPs know local problems. DC’s don’t know everything. They do what they will before being transferred, but we have to live here whether we remain MPs or not. How can they beat the naxals when work hasn’t even started with these funds?
The planning commission’s online progress report shows that work on anganwadis have started in Jehanabad in January. Sharma wasn’t willing to comment on his own CM scrapping the corruption ridden MLA LADS funds.
While the finance minister included MPs on the panel in his budget speech, their mention was amiss in the printed version. Sharma, Namdhari and others wrote to him to which he clarified that MPs would be included. The online version of the speech was subsequently edited.
Planning Commission sources say that initially they had proposed to only include panchayat representatives, and not legislators, to prevent corruption and politicization. Senior police officers too want politicians out.
“We take feedback and opinions from local people whenever we implement schemes. If politicians are on the panel these schemes will get unnecessarily politicized,” said an SP of an LWE hit district.
Disagreements with politicians aren’t just on procedure, but they also extend to the actual implementation of the schemes.
Namdhari explained that underdevelopment and unemployment aren’t the only reasons for naxals gaining strength. “They are addicted to the levy they extort from contractors. The more money you pump in the stronger they get. They have a vested interest in not letting development take place.”
He added that LWE funds should solely be spent on increasing the accessibility of the police, like road building. “You shouldn’t waste it on digging ponds.” He ever wrote to Pranab Mukherjee saying, “… in the previous lot of schemes selected by officials several useless schemes have been chosen.”
The IAP however specifies that schemes should show results in the short term. An SP of an LWE district in Jharkhand explained: “I want schools in interior villages. In Palamu and Latehar there is no water in summer. Drinking water, communications- these are of best use in interior villages. Only then will the public believe in us.”
SP Anoop Mathew said, “We take on schemes we can implement fast. They may be roads, but in areas where we can provide security for construction. We have to make visible changes. This is the first time the police are playing a major role in development planning. We’re confident they will contribute in curbing naxalism.”
With legislators finally set to enter selection panels, one can only hope against hopes for a productive synergy between the 2 pillars of democracy in curbing naxalism.
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